News & Exhibitions


2024 – Exhibitions

Moving : Stilling at Traver Gallery (Seattle, WA)

June 2024

Opening Reception: June 6, 2024, 5pm - 8pm
Open House: Saturday, June 8, 2pm - 4pm

Videos:
Moving : Stilling Traver Gallery walkthrough June 24th, 2024
Traver Gallery In Conversation with Jef Gunn

Well My House is on Fire, Burning to the Sky 2020, 15” x 30”, ink, gouache, gold leaf, collage on panel

Traver Gallery

Contact:
110 Union St. #200
Seattle, WA 98101
(206) 587-6501

Open Hours:
Tuesday - Friday 10am – 6pm
Saturday 10am - 5pm
and by appointment
More info: travergallery.com

Please come by Traver Gallery for a visit anytime between June 6 - 29, 2024.


Heartbreak at Augen Gallery (Portland, OR)

April 2024

Opening Reception: First Thursday, April 4, 2024

Foothills Park, oil painting, 30” x 40”

Visit Augen Gallery

Contact:
716 NW Davis, Portland, OR 97209
(503) 546-5056

Open Hours:
Wednesday – Saturday 11:30am – 5:00pm
and by appointment
More info: augengallery.com

Please come by Augen Gallery for a visit anytime between April 4 - April 30, 2024.


2023 – Exhibitions

Artworks Northwest Biennial at Umpqua Valley Arts (Roseburg, OR)

June 9 - August 18, 2023

Opening Reception: June 9, 4-7pm

Awake at the Shore I, encaustic on panel, 13.5” x 41” 

Visit Umqua Valley Arts

Contact:
1624 West Harvard Avenue
Roseburg, OR 97471
(541) 672-2532

Open Hours:
Tuesday – Friday 10am - 6pm
Closed Saturday, Sunday, Monday & holidays
More info: uvarts.com

Please come by Umqua Valley Arts for a visit anytime between June 9 - August 18, 2023.


Changing Seasons at Augen Gallery (Portland, OR)

July - August 2023

Opening Reception: TBD

Changing Season, oil on canvas, 24” x 48”

Visit Augen Gallery

Contact:
716 NW Davis, Portland, OR 97209
(503) 546-5056

Open Hours:
Wednesday – Saturday 11:30am – 5:00pm
and by appointment
More info: augengallery.com

Please come by Augen Gallery for a visit anytime between July 1 - August 30, 2023.


2022– Exhibitions

Surroundings: A Picture of the Land at Augen Gallery (Portland, OR)

July 6-30, 2022

Opening Reception: Saturday, July 9, 1:30 - 4pm

Works by: Charles Burchfield, Sally Cleveland, John Cole, Ron Cronin, Karen Esler, Jef Gunn, Rita Robillard, Morgan Walker, Thomas Wood, and others

Barn 2020, oil on canvas, 18” x 24”

Harney County Ranch in the Moonlight, 2019-21, oil on canvas, 24” x 36”

Visit Augen Gallery

Contact:
716 NW Davis, Portland, OR 97209
(503) 546-5056

Open Hours:
Wednesday – Saturday 11:30am – 5:00pm
and by appointment
More info: augengallery.com

Please come by Augen Gallery for a visit anytime between July 6 - 30, 2022.

Plein Air at Hoffman Center for the Arts (Manzanita, OR)

September 1-25, 2022

This small show will be concurrent with the four day Beginning Plein Air workshop at the Hoffman Center and will include coastal plein air paintings.

Visit Hoffman Center for the Arts

Contact:
594 Laneda Avenue
Manzanita, OR 97130
info@hoffmanarts.org

Open Hours:
Thursday – Sunday 1pm – 5pm
and by appointment
More info: hoffmanarts.org

Please come by for a visit between September 1 and September 25, 2022.

The World Goes Round at Augen Gallery (Portland, OR)

October 1-31, 2022

Oils and Encaustic paintings of experience in the magic of the living world we inhabit. More information coming as October approaches.

Visit Augen Gallery

Contact:
716 NW Davis, Portland, OR 97209
(503) 546-5056

Open Hours:
Wednesday – Saturday 11:30am – 5:00pm
and by appointment
More info: augengallery.com

Please come by Augen Gallery for a visit anytime between October 1 and October 31, 2022.


2020-2021 – News

Ten NW Buddhist Climate Action Leaders’ Paths

Northwest Dharma Initiative – Winter 2020 (Released February 2021)
Jef Gunn is a member of the climate group at Kagyu Changchub Chuling, a Tibetan Buddhist Sangha in Portland. He’s also a painter who works outdoors, capturing the beauty and vulnerability of the landscape.
Read full article »

Oregon Art Beat: Encaustic artist Jef Gunn on seeing the art in the accidents

Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) – October 21, 2020
Through the ancient art of hot wax painting, Jef Gunn creates complex, modern paintings with pigments in beeswax.
Read full article on OPB »


2021 – Exhibitions

Stone and Light at i.e. gallery (Edison, WA)

October 1 - 31, 2021
Video: i.e. presents Jef Gunn : Stone and Light

Edison is in the Skagit flatlands, off the Chuckanut Drive, which heads NW from I-5, north of Mt. Vernon. It’s a beautiful area with rich history, from the original Skagit Tribe inhabitants, to the farm communities all around, and the many great artists who have worked in the area for decades.

The show is oriented toward Rocks of the shoreline and rocks of the mountains and any old rock anywhere, with oil and encaustic paintings, monoprints and mixed media on paper.

Near Shores and Far Shores

Near Shores and Far Shores

Show Statement

Stone and Light
It has a lot to do with patience. On the studio wall is a piece of paper:
quiet
soft
noble
sad
not firm
not weak
no sleight of hand
frank
joy
love


Today and for some decades now rock, stone, land – leaders in patience – have drawn my attention. A drawing or painting is like a greeting. A wave or a bow across space. The appeal is its own answer.

Painting is a fluid art that presents as static. Time flows past this moment while the painting is still seeing and giving.

Visit i.e. gallery

Contact:
5800 Cains Court
Edison, WA 98232
360-488-3458

Open Hours:
Friday – Sunday 11am – 5pm
and by appointment
More info: ieedison.com

Please come by i.e. gallery for a visit anytime between October 1 and October 31, 2021.


2020 – Exhibitions

How to Love the World at Augen Gallery (Portland, OR)

September 30 - October 31, 2020

A small show of smaller oils (and two encaustic paintings) to coincide with a lucky feature on Oregon Art Beat that will show this Fall 2020 on OPB (Oregon Public Broadcasting).

NORTHERN LAKE (Falcon Lake, Manitoba) (Métis), 2020 oil on panel, 12 x 19 inches

NORTHERN LAKE (Falcon Lake, Manitoba) (Métis), 2020 oil on panel, 12 x 19 inches

FAR ACROSS THE GREAT COLUMBIA (Washougal from Rooster Rock) (Cowlitz), 2020 oil on canvas, 18 x 24 inches

FAR ACROSS THE GREAT COLUMBIA (Washougal from Rooster Rock) (Cowlitz), 2020 oil on canvas, 18 x 24 inches

SAME OLD BUTTE (Diamond, Oregon) (Northern Paiute), 2019 oil on panel, 11 x 22 inches

SAME OLD BUTTE (Diamond, Oregon) (Northern Paiute), 2019 oil on panel, 11 x 22 inches

Show Statement

True goodness
is like water.
Water’s good
for everything.
It doesn’t compete.
 
It goes right
to the low loathsome places,
and so finds the way.
 
For a house,
the good thing is level ground.
In thinking,
depth is good.
The good of giving is magnanimity;
of speaking, honesty;
of government, order.
The good of work is skill,
and of action, timing.
 
No competition,
so no blame.

lao tzu, tao te ching No. 8 – English version by Ursula K. Le Guin.

Of the thirteen paintings here, nine include water. Five refer to the Columbia River. Two are of the Salmon River on the south side of Cascade Head on the Oregon Coast, which might be burning as I write this. One is related in my mind to Falcon Lake, on the Manitoba-Ontario border. Lastly, a small, nameless stream in a gold landscape.

Of the other four paintings, two are desert. Desert is also defined by water, by dearth of water. Lastly, a red dogwood in my yard gets water from the sky, and Topaz Farmers water their crops on Sauvie Island, surrounded by and crisscrossed by water.

Over the past many years, I’m increasingly alert to the land and water everywhere as having been wrested from previous caretakers. Who lived here before European people came? Who are the people who knew and cared for the land? The tribe names are listed with the titles.

One painting looks across the Columbia River to Kalama, Washington to the site of a proposed fracked gas to methanol refinery and dock for shipping to China. Unless we stop it, it will be the largest methanol refinery in the world. Need I say more?

Visit Augen Gallery 

Contact:
716 NW Davis, Portland, OR 97209
(503) 546-5056

Open Hours:
Wednesday – Saturday 11:30am – 5:00pm
and by appointment
More info: augengallery.com

COVID Safety Rules:
Four people allowed at a time in the gallery, wearing masks.

Please come by Augen Gallery for a visit anytime between September 30 and October 31, 2020.


Y Aquí Me Quedo - 2018

24 x 30 inches

oil on canvas

Not Dark Yet

oil on panel

Ten Thousand Abodesoil on panel

Ten Thousand Abodes

oil on panel

2017 – News

Jef Gunn on the Coming and Going of His Art

Oregon Arts Watch – September 10, 2017
Jef Gunn moved to Portland in the late 1990s. Over the past 30 years he has participated in numerous exhibitions in the Northwest and has wide ranging teaching experience.
Read full article »